What is Lifestylessence? It’s what home design is all about: creating ambience that matches your lifestyle and being comfortable at home.

• Market trends
• Flue Sentinel lets you choose: Glass or no?

The hearth is part of the home’s essence, truly the focal point of any room. The hearth is also a source of constant struggle in home design.

Many homeowners, architects and interior designers want a natural, real-looking hearth in their new homes, but they are faced with the realities of a real fireplace – cold drafts, heat loss and inconveniences such as messy ashes and hauling wood.

Gas log fireplaces are a partial solution, but there is still a lot of heat escaping through the chimney, causing cold drafts in your home. And what about those glass doors or permanently-sealed glass panes? How do they fit into your décor, especially if you are trying to create a natural look?

•	Flue Sentinel eliminates the cold draft. Never again feel all that cold air from the drafts of your fireplace.
•	Flue Sentinel eliminates the need for glass doors to conserve heat. With the damper installed in your home, you can design an incredible, one-of-a-kind, natural-looking fireplace… without all the glass. You can create an instant “wow” factor in your home and a favorite place for family to come together.
•	No glass doors = more hearth, bigger-looking hearth, bigger fire. Instantly, the look of a bigger hearth. More natural. All because there are no glass doors or structural supports framing your fire.
•	Flue Sentinel gives you ultimate convenience. You never have to remember to close your flue again.
•	Flue Sentinel is very efficient in terms of trapping heat inside the home, since it’s located at the top of the chimney. And because of its location, you don’t need to design around your fireplace —you won’t see any of the Flue Sentinel components.
•	Best of all, you don’t have to settle for glass doors or permanently-sealed glass panes, which limit the design and décor choices for the hearth and ultimately the whole living space.

Flue Sentinel appeals to home architects and interior designers alike because it allows you, the homeowner, to truly control the design and decor of your hearth.

MARKET TRENDS
1	Direct-vent fireplaces have gained popularity over last several years because of real and perceived efficiency gains, but direct-vents often interfere with hearth and living space design
2	Real, wood-burning fireplaces are getting more expensive and in many areas, are being regulated out of existence; home builders and homeowners want alternatives.
3	Electronic ignition fireplaces are the future.
4	Gas logs look real and act real (look and sound, even crackle, like real wood).
5	Decorative screens, used in open fireplaces are attractive and gaining popularity as a way to increase the hearth’s appeal
6	The natural look is and has always been in style.

Flue Sentinel	Glass Doors or Permanently Sealed Glass Panes
Invisible in the home, since it’s located at the top of the chimney	May detract from the look of your hearth.
Does not interfere with interior design of your home, and gives you endless design possibilities for the fireplace and fireplace accessories	Limited design choices for glass doors, which may interfere with the design you are trying to achieve.
Lets you achieve a very natural looking hearth, and a bigger-looking hearth	Does not provide a natural looking hearth and minimizes viewing area of fire.
Allows for open hearth or a decorative fireplace screen.	Glass doors require clearance to open and they reflect, which limits your accessorizing. Glass panes, of course, reflect and can never be opened.
Electronic damper closes the flue when it’s safe to do so, trapping conditioned air inside the flue and inside the home	Conditioned air escapes through an open chimney at a rate up to 30 percent when a manual damper is left open.
Cuts off the air flow in and out of your home, and eliminates the draft	Most glass doors reduce air flow, but do not prevent drafts. Glass doors can chatter on windy days.
Keeps flue warm for improved, natural draft condition. This helps eliminate fumes from entering room.	A heavier column of cold air is waiting on the other side of glass door (cold draft), ready to come into the room when opened, allowing fumes to enter room